"Tracy was a warm and generous woman who, despite your treatment of her, loved you," he said. "It was you and your unreasonable insatiable sexual demands that led to your toxic marriage.

"When you deliberately drove off the motorway your intention was to kill Tracy. You knew you had lost your control over her and it was your way of demonstrating it was you who was in control.

"You have demonstrated no remorse or regret. Indeed you seem to altogether lack compassion or empathy."

In a statement, Mrs Walter's family said: "The hole that has been left by Tracy's murder is a void that can never be filled. Even our memories will be tainted because of the cowardly and devastating way in which we lost her.

"We as a family are also the victims of domestic abuse, it destroys lives, it devastates families, it has robbed us of a future with Tracy."

Walters was questioned on claims of domestic abuse a week before the murder. He met Mrs Walters in 2011, and they married the following year. They both had children from previous relationships.